ENCAPSULATE 2019
Unabashedly Unforgettable
Words by Matthew Vernall
Did you know that several news outlets (including the New York Times) declared 2019 as ‘The best year ever?” Whilst we did see the disaster of female empowerment known as Ms Monopoly (it is as ironically patronising as you’d imagine), we also got to enjoy such moments as the finale of the Infinity Saga, Avengers: Endgame, Greta Thunberg giving her first powerful speech addressing the U.N.’s Climate Action summit and seeing the first ever pictures of a black hole thanks to Katie Bouman’s work on the Event Horizon telescope.
We also got to experience many fantastic games, find out what as we look at gaming in 2019!
WINGSPAN
Starting things off with our most beautiful looking game of 2019 and the debut design of Elizabeth Hargrave, Wingspan. This game has held the number 1 family spot for a significant time now on BGG and for good reason. Each player is tasked with creating the ideal conditions to bring beautiful birds into their wildlife preserves, gathering food and ordering their bird discoveries to create an avian-powered apparatus of point production. The game’s gorgeous visuals and immediately evocative theme helped win over players who might have otherwise been reluctant to play such a heavy engine building game, but who could resist such tiny pastel eggs and the glorious bird feeder dice tower, clearly the best form of dice tower to possibly ever exist in tabletop gaming.